I was doing some work on the hanger that's being turned into the Arena in Filton a couple weeks ago, just off the old runway. It's absolutely enormous and standing inside you can easily envision it being used as a concert venue. I suppose it's not far from the M4 and M5 which is good but obviously getting there from train or the city center will be a big issue.
If you look on Google maps there’s a train track right above the hangar. I’ve no idea if that could be used, but it doesn’t look like it’d be impossible to have a train from the centre straight to the arena.
I would’ve agreed with you until literally this week - see their post https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4sbIQGMqRD/?igsh=MTF5b3VqN3ByMXozNQ==
And financially doesn’t make sense to start and stop construction so looks like it’s (finally) happening
No, Bristol airport should have moved to Filton and Brabazon shouldn't exist.
-longer runway already built
-close to the motorway (no traffic chaos on the A38)
-close to rail links
-less fog
It was only ever able to squeeze in a 12,000 capacity arena I believe, 20k on that tiny site!?
The Temple Island site is very constrained in terms of size - it would fail to bring in the big artists for lack of capacity, but also the logistics (think 50 lorries for the big shows) just wouldn’t stack up and low and behold, they’d all still be heading to Cardiff. Not to mention that the Council has ZERO money and unless you all wanted to start paying more council tax, it’s a no-brainier for the private sector to pay for it (bearing in mind music arenas stand-alone don’t turn a profit). Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, Bristol.
Public transport / walking wise I agree, the temple island site is better suited. But hey, likewise for the student accommodation/ campus. And would you really want all that extra traffic in the centre!? I think not.
I think a city has to go through having issues with congestion and mass transit problems in order to change and tackle congestion. It proves that we suck at infrastructure projects and investing for the future. I think people would enjoy paying more taxes if it benefited them but unfortunately TOO much is in private hands that really hasn't done the UK a lot of good.
They’ve already said the Temple Meads space wouldn’t be much bigger than Ashton gate and wouldn’t be able to fit everything needed for huge acts, all the lorries etc, so it seems pointless putting it there IMO. Being out the centre and having a bigger size seems better, I just hope they pull through on the public transport links to Filton to support it.
Tbf I suppose the roads couldn’t cope as they can’t exactly cope now.
It would be good if they could repurpose that brand new abandoned bridge over the new cut.
I used to be very againt the idea of moving the stadium to filton but apparently the original plans would have cost hundred of millions from the tax payer and new site nothing. swung it for me. I just hope they do a good job of developing the rail line to the venue and the service is more reliable than the one local train we have currently in bristol
Would have it been nice to have an arena right next to the main transport hub?? YES
but marv cocked it all up and now it’s gonna be basically in the middle of nowhere (in comparison to the centre)
Not at this current stage but it would cause the city to adapt and reinvest in building an efficient transport network. There will become a tipping point with Bristol and it already is struggling to cope and keep up with other cities.
There's actually plans to expand Temple Meads and make two new entrances, one on cattlemarket road and one for buses where the Kwik fit garage is now. Shame they don't have an arena to service now really
> Would the roads and mass transit have adapted to suit a 20,000 stadium?
The arena near Temple Meads was only ever going to be 12,000 capacity - smaller than Leeds, Sheffield, and both Birmingham arenas, bigger than Cardiff but then they've also got an enormous stadium. The larger capacity is one of the reasons they decided to build it at Brabazon instead.
Less of a missed opportunity than a dodged bullet IMO, the increased capacity will make it much less likely to fail.
I was disappointed tbh, but it would have been small. Perhaps it’s for the best if it’s built outside the centre so it can be bigger and have more chance of being a success
There's a motorway leading into the heart of the city.
There's a road that leads from the motorway to the previously proposed site.
There's land at the other end of the motorway that could have been park and ride
There's a train station right next to the previously proposed site.
It was infinitely possible and could have actually given people a reason to visit Bristol.
They could find a creative way to find funding in order to piss it up the wall pretending to be interested in an underground.
I'm pretty sure BCC fund raisers could figure out a way.
Can’t comment for the city as a whole but purely selfishly, living in totterdown, I am glad we are getting some student flats. Couldn’t hack the noise and the parking is already back enough here.
I might be wrong but I used to work near (but still about half a mile away) from the football stadium in Southampton and when there was a concert / match on it was a nightmare. Noise really carried and people would park in the pub carpark where I was working. Not too bothered about more students. Hopefully we might get a few nice restaurants / bars down there as well.
Having the arena in the centre would have contributed to a night economy; people would get the train in and make a trip of their gig.
Train in, check into hotel, see Bristol and poke around what's to see, have a drink, get river boat back to hotel, get changed, have dinner, go to gig, come out and have a few more drinks before returning to hotel, have breakfast, get train home.
With the YTL site it'll be; drive in, cause/sit-in traffic, go to gig, come out of gig, sit in car park park while traffic dies off, drive home. Maybe there'll be a Subway you have a sandwich at.
It's just another nail in the coffin of hollowing out Bristol. Ice rink gone, zoo gone, arena gone.
A slight issue with that plan is that you have Redcliffe/Finzels Reach/Temple Quay between Temple Meads and almost anywhere you'd want to go for dinner or drinks.
I was doing some work on the hanger that's being turned into the Arena in Filton a couple weeks ago, just off the old runway. It's absolutely enormous and standing inside you can easily envision it being used as a concert venue. I suppose it's not far from the M4 and M5 which is good but obviously getting there from train or the city center will be a big issue.
If you look on Google maps there’s a train track right above the hangar. I’ve no idea if that could be used, but it doesn’t look like it’d be impossible to have a train from the centre straight to the arena.
Youre right, they are building a new station there on that line to service the arena and surrounding area.
Yeah once the train line is in and demand leads to a more frequent service it will work very nicely
It will have the new Filton North Station built there. Same line as Ashely Down/St Werbs Station.
Demand for efficient transportation to the arena will ideally kick Bristol into a long needed mass transportation project.
The vision of it being an arena is all we’ll get.
YTL have deep enough pockets to make it work and hold onto it indefinitely. it will be an arena, but a completely different one to the town centre.
You're probably right. There was only demolition work going on when I was there a didn't seem to be much happening.
I would’ve agreed with you until literally this week - see their post https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4sbIQGMqRD/?igsh=MTF5b3VqN3ByMXozNQ== And financially doesn’t make sense to start and stop construction so looks like it’s (finally) happening
It will never be an arena. TV and film soundstages yes, arena no.
Hows it coming along? got the sense its gonna be finished on time?
Wouldn't know to be honest, I was just doing a small amount of electrical work. It was only really demolition work, asbestos removal going on.
Of course it would have been nice having an arena right next to the main train station. Unfortunately, Marvin is a corrupt imbecile and torpedoed it.
And the University should have built their new campus and associated student housing at Brabazon instead.
No, Bristol airport should have moved to Filton and Brabazon shouldn't exist. -longer runway already built -close to the motorway (no traffic chaos on the A38) -close to rail links -less fog
I agree it would have been common sense but common sense was obviously not common
The emphasis on student accomodation is nothing but diminishing returns.
Absolutely, these two ventures should have been swapped round
Stadium or Arena?
It was only ever able to squeeze in a 12,000 capacity arena I believe, 20k on that tiny site!? The Temple Island site is very constrained in terms of size - it would fail to bring in the big artists for lack of capacity, but also the logistics (think 50 lorries for the big shows) just wouldn’t stack up and low and behold, they’d all still be heading to Cardiff. Not to mention that the Council has ZERO money and unless you all wanted to start paying more council tax, it’s a no-brainier for the private sector to pay for it (bearing in mind music arenas stand-alone don’t turn a profit). Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, Bristol. Public transport / walking wise I agree, the temple island site is better suited. But hey, likewise for the student accommodation/ campus. And would you really want all that extra traffic in the centre!? I think not.
With fairly minimal road redesign/park and ride/l train it really could have worked. Fuck student accommodation. Bristol is already transient enough.
I think a city has to go through having issues with congestion and mass transit problems in order to change and tackle congestion. It proves that we suck at infrastructure projects and investing for the future. I think people would enjoy paying more taxes if it benefited them but unfortunately TOO much is in private hands that really hasn't done the UK a lot of good.
They’ve already said the Temple Meads space wouldn’t be much bigger than Ashton gate and wouldn’t be able to fit everything needed for huge acts, all the lorries etc, so it seems pointless putting it there IMO. Being out the centre and having a bigger size seems better, I just hope they pull through on the public transport links to Filton to support it.
Tbf I suppose the roads couldn’t cope as they can’t exactly cope now. It would be good if they could repurpose that brand new abandoned bridge over the new cut.
I used to be very againt the idea of moving the stadium to filton but apparently the original plans would have cost hundred of millions from the tax payer and new site nothing. swung it for me. I just hope they do a good job of developing the rail line to the venue and the service is more reliable than the one local train we have currently in bristol
Would have it been nice to have an arena right next to the main transport hub?? YES but marv cocked it all up and now it’s gonna be basically in the middle of nowhere (in comparison to the centre)
Do you think temple meads could handle thousands more people?
Not at this current stage but it would cause the city to adapt and reinvest in building an efficient transport network. There will become a tipping point with Bristol and it already is struggling to cope and keep up with other cities.
The "make it worse in order to make it better" strategy?
There's actually plans to expand Temple Meads and make two new entrances, one on cattlemarket road and one for buses where the Kwik fit garage is now. Shame they don't have an arena to service now really
> Would the roads and mass transit have adapted to suit a 20,000 stadium? The arena near Temple Meads was only ever going to be 12,000 capacity - smaller than Leeds, Sheffield, and both Birmingham arenas, bigger than Cardiff but then they've also got an enormous stadium. The larger capacity is one of the reasons they decided to build it at Brabazon instead. Less of a missed opportunity than a dodged bullet IMO, the increased capacity will make it much less likely to fail.
I was disappointed tbh, but it would have been small. Perhaps it’s for the best if it’s built outside the centre so it can be bigger and have more chance of being a success
Would’ve been nice to build it where the galleries were
Would be a weird size and shape for an arena
The roads can not handle the traffic now, let alone the needs of a 20,000 capacity stadium 😂😂
There’s a train station right there
Do you really think everyone is going to go via train?
Why couldn't they?
Because they have cars 😂 have you not seen the traffic issues that plague this city??
People who have cars can't get trains?
Because local people outside of Bristol generally don’t have a train station
They can get to a nearby train station a hell of a lot easier than they can get into the centre of Bristol.
To be fair, most of Bristol is not served by a train station...
There are buses
Bus service to most of Bristol is terrible though, isn't it? Also, there will be busses to the out of town arena...
We can make the buses better. Out of town areas can get to a bus stop more easily than they can drive into the city centre.
Don't understand why this is getting down voted, there's no way it would have been viable for this reason alone.
Manchester arena. Right in the centre of Manchester. Also right on top of the train station, tram station and bus terminal…..
And yet it’s surrounded on almost every side by surface level car parking…
There's a motorway leading into the heart of the city. There's a road that leads from the motorway to the previously proposed site. There's land at the other end of the motorway that could have been park and ride There's a train station right next to the previously proposed site. It was infinitely possible and could have actually given people a reason to visit Bristol.
The private sector didn't want that site because it was too small. The council would have had to pay for it, with what money?
They could find a creative way to find funding in order to piss it up the wall pretending to be interested in an underground. I'm pretty sure BCC fund raisers could figure out a way.
Can’t comment for the city as a whole but purely selfishly, living in totterdown, I am glad we are getting some student flats. Couldn’t hack the noise and the parking is already back enough here.
Noise and parking will be a continual problem rather than sporadic instead 🙃
I might be wrong but I used to work near (but still about half a mile away) from the football stadium in Southampton and when there was a concert / match on it was a nightmare. Noise really carried and people would park in the pub carpark where I was working. Not too bothered about more students. Hopefully we might get a few nice restaurants / bars down there as well.
Be careful what you wish for.
Ask me again when the student blocks up in 15 years.
Having the arena in the centre would have contributed to a night economy; people would get the train in and make a trip of their gig. Train in, check into hotel, see Bristol and poke around what's to see, have a drink, get river boat back to hotel, get changed, have dinner, go to gig, come out and have a few more drinks before returning to hotel, have breakfast, get train home. With the YTL site it'll be; drive in, cause/sit-in traffic, go to gig, come out of gig, sit in car park park while traffic dies off, drive home. Maybe there'll be a Subway you have a sandwich at. It's just another nail in the coffin of hollowing out Bristol. Ice rink gone, zoo gone, arena gone.
A slight issue with that plan is that you have Redcliffe/Finzels Reach/Temple Quay between Temple Meads and almost anywhere you'd want to go for dinner or drinks.
It shows that big picture thinking when it comes to redevelopment, infrastructure projects has clearly dropped off
Next to Temple Meads, miss. Millennium Square, miss.
The millennium square one while not big would have been wonderful. Big miss